Join author, native plant lobbyist, and Wilmette resident Charlotte Adelman and Monica Buckley of Red Stem Native Landscaping for a presentation on all-season gardening with native plants.
All-season gardening's historical meaning is selecting plants like trees, shrubs, and flowers so when one plant or garden area ceases flowering colorfully, another takes over. In the past, plant choices were often made on the basis of neighbors’ gardens and the limited selections available in local nurseries or generalized mail order catalogs. Today’s gardeners, living in the information age, face many challenges unknown to earlier generations but which are relevant to the responsible and meaningful gardening that is important to today's gardeners.
For example, today’s gardeners have access to scientific information, so - without sacrificing colorful flowering aesthetic beauty - we can determine which plant species are true natives and thus adapted, all-season, to our local climate and soil conditions. Today's gardeners can learn that, unlike the natives, most popular nonnative garden plants and nativars (cultivars derived from native species) that are available in local nurseries do not provide adequate food or energetic rewards for insect visitors like bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Intelligent and caring all-season gardening can provide our charismatic wildlife with the human help they need to survive and thrive and our gardens with all-season aesthetic beauty.
Charlotte Adelman is an author and native plant lobbyist. When Charlotte Adelman and Bernie Schwartz married, they moved to Wilmette. This is where they spent their marriage practicing law, bird watching, and transforming their backyard into an urban prairie. The success of this project inspired a more intense interest in the environment and the North American prairie.
Adelman spent more than a decade advocating for and successfully passing Wilmette's gas-power leaf blower ordinance. She worked with the Park District and initiated regularly scheduled removals of invasive nonnative garlic mustard at Keay Park. She advocated successfully for two units of Wilmette government to stop applying harmful pesticides to public lawns that were used by residents of all ages. Adelman initiated and helped create Wilmette's 2-acre Centennial Park Prairie. By giving many prairie tours, Adelman introduced the ancient prairie ecosystem to numerous local people and encouraged gardening and landscaping with native Midwestern prairie species instead of with nonnative plant species that originate mostly in Eurasia. The couple co-authored several books including The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants, An Illustrated Guide, Midwestern Native Shrubs and Trees, Gardening Alternative to Nonnative Species, An Illustrated Guide, and Prairie Directory of North America – The United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Monica Buckley, owner of Red Stem Native Landscapes, spent most of her childhood summers playing near her Chicago home where giant silk moths emerged from homely brown cocoons, yellow tiger swallowtail butterflies graced the treetops, and beautiful songbirds dive bombed for caterpillars. Life would take Monica into the world of publishing for many years until her passion for native gardens and the wildlife they support demanded her full attention and she opened Red Stem in 2013.
From the south: Go north on Green Bay Road. Turn left on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From the north: Go south on Green Bay Road. Turn right on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From I-94 (Edens Expressway):from the South - exit at Lake Ave. East. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave. • from the North - exit at Rt. 41/Skokie Blvd. Turn left (east) on Lake Ave. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave.
Mass transit options include CTA, Metra, and Pace.
